Health

Costs of poison-related hospitalizations at an urban teaching hospital for children

Article Abstract:

Childhood hospitalizations for poisoning have increased at a Boston, MA, hospital. Researchers at Children's Hospital reviewed poison-related hospitalizations from 1992 to 1995. There were 638 hospital admissions of children for poisoning, at a cost of almost $1 million each year. Although poisonings increased each year, children spent fewer days in the hospital, so per-child costs declined from $7,934 in 1992 to $4,968 in 1995. Acetaminophen, lead, and antidepressant medications were the most common and costly causes of poisoning.

Cystic fibrosis deaths in the United States from 1979 through 1991: an analysis using multiple-cause mortality data

Article Abstract:

The lifespan of children with cystic fibrosis (CF) may be increasing. Researchers reviewed diagnoses on death certificates in a national database and found that 6,500 included a diagnosis of CF. The average age of death from CF was 15 years in 1979; by 1991 it had risen to 23 years. Whites had a six times higher chance of dying of CF than did blacks, which reflects the higher prevalence of CF among whites than among any other race. CF-related death rates have decreased for children ages one through 14 years.